Friday, May 02, 2008

Nino Bless' ancitipated street LP, Untold Scriptures, is set to drop on May 20th, 2008. I had no idea cats like Big Mike, Mick BoogieandJ-Love were behind this project! It looks like it will be released FOR FREE, but you also have the opportunity to support Nino buy copping both physical and digital versions of the album, through spots like beatsource.com, which has 4 tracks up for purchase right now: "Times Are Hard" (ft. Joe Budden), "4 In The Clip" (ft. Joell Ortiz, Styles P & Kool G Rap), "Urban Legends" & "3rd Degree" (ft. Saigon and Crooked I). Here's the tracklist:

Download this thing and jam it on out, then make sure you hit the stores for the next 3 Tuesdays:

5.06.08 : A-Sides From The Archives

For those unfamiliar with our releases, A-Sides From The Archives is a great way to catch up with our catalog and also get a taste of what's to come. This release takes the A sides from our vinyl catalog and compiles them for one release. This includes hits that feature Bekay, Big Noyd, Inspectah Deck, Saigon, Strong Arm-Steady & Supernatural in addition to bonus track of Coalmine Records 2008 Sampler (Mixed by Mick Boogie).

5.13.08 : Bekay The Horror Flick Remix EP

As a quick follow-up to Bekay's acclaimed Rawkus 50 album, The Horror Flick LP, we give the die-hards a lil appetizer until the main-course, Hunger Pains makes its way onto the table. The Horror Flick Remix EP remixes three tracks from the original Horror Flick album. Coalmine affiliate and Beat Fanatic/Wax Reform member M-Phazes remixes the lead single "I'm The Reason". This remix is recently began its college radio campaign and is already climbing up the charts at a rapid rate [click here]. Domingo (Big Pun, Fat Joe, KRS-One) produces an incredible remix of "Ready To Go". The final track on this project ("Battlefield") is remixed by Twice As Nice Productions out of Australia. Click here for a snippet of "I'm The Reason" (M-Phazes remix).

5.20.08 : CL Smooth feat. Skyzoo "Perfect Timing" (single)

"Perfect Timing" features the legendary CL Smooth along with hip-hop's next of kin, Skyzoo, over a soulful banger produced again by beat-smith extraordinaire M-Phazes. Needless to say, the timing could not be more perfect to drop this single as Coalmine gets set to embark on a year that will be marked by one dope release after another. This track is the first single taken from the Coalmine Records forthcoming compilation album "Unearthed" which is due to be released later this year. Click here for snippet.

David Banner is in full promotion, with his The Greatest Story Ever Told set to be released this summer. He is doing a "Greatest Stories" series, and this one is about a misunderstanding that got hairy:

You guys may or may not have known, but Loud.com has been running this competition since April of 2007; at stake: $100K and a recording contract with SRC /Universal Motown. SRC narrowed down the submissions to 9, and those finalists have been going through some tasks to try and be THE ONE! In these days of Reality TV, Steve Rifkind has decided to play the Donald Trump role in The Apprentice, and this competition has gone viral! They are up to Chapter 7 right now, and you'd be playing yourself if you missed out on this. The story is good, the production quality is very good, considering it's something that's not mass-produced for TV, but that's also part of it's charm.

Allow me to introduce you to Charles Ray Fuller. You think you've heard of dumb-ass niggas in dumb-ass fraud schemes, but this nigga takes the cake. This cat recently got arrested for forgery. He tried cashing a check that he says was written by his girlfriend's mother... to the tune of $360 Billion Dollars. Yes, that is not a typo. This ignorant-ass nigga tried to say "oh, she finna start me up a record label". Come on, dog. Who the fuck did you think was working at the bank that would seriously cash a $360 billion dollar check!?! Nigga, the only person that would have worked on was your doppleganger, and even he would have been like "nigga, what?"

MGG has a new post over at his XXL Blog, chopping it up with the Royal Flush production duo behind Big Boi's "Royal Flush", a banger that woke the sleeping internets a month or so ago. Here's an excerpt:

So walk us through the making of “Royal Flush.” Was it a matter of hours, days, months?

Rick: It was one night between 2:30 am and 4:50 am. Jeron had to work the next morning. We had just cut up a sample. I was playing it in my iPod one night and Big heard it, he said it was dope and it went from there. That was the first song he completed for the solo album. It was on MLK weekend matter of fact.

Jeron: The beat came with ease, it was an old sample. “Harlem Nocturne” which is a jazz standard. Joe Harnell did it too, so it had an epic sound to it.

Rick: After that everything started coming together with everybody adding their own flavor to the track. Even with Dre, how can you say “I don’t want this on my song.” He blessed us with the “ch-ch-ch” sounds. It’s like watching your Grandma cook Thanksgiving dinner, you don’t know what goes in it, but the final product tastes great.

The beat itself has a lot of elements in it.

Rick: Yeah, listening to the verses explains how things were added. The Isley Bros. sample came in because of Big’s verse. When he says “Billy Ocean mighty potent, take a voyage to Atlanits.” He’s saying just like in the song “I’ll always come back to you.” That means Hip Hop, it’s embedded in everything we do now. You always come back to the elements.

Jeron: Hip Hop is the blues of today, you hear it in everything now.

How did you feel when people said the song sounded like some old Outkast? Even inferring that the song was actually old.

Jeron: That’s a blessing. It’s an honor to hear people say it has a classic sound to it. A lot of the stuff they did in ‘93 still jams to this day.

Rick: By people saying that, it’s like having a kid, the birth of something new. People that hit us now say they want a track like that, you can’t duplicate that. You can’t do it, once you try to redo something it’s like a retro. Like the Jordan’s that’s been coming out. People say they got the retros, but I got the real Jordans. My attention span too short to duplicate stuff anyway.

That beat still has me open. Plus, any excuse to use that pic again is something I will hop on, early.

This quartet of sisters has their sophmore album, The Truth, dropping on May 13th; here's the tracklist, with producers included:

1) Killa - Produced by Don Vito for Don Vito Productions2) I Aint Trippin - Produced by Tricky Stewart for RedZone Entertainment3) Amnesia - Produced by J-New for Crown World Entertainment4) Notice - Produced by Don Vito for Don Vito Productions5) Framed Out - Produced by Tricky Stewart for RedZone Entertainment6) Before You Were My Man - Produced by Eric Hudson for Just E. Production Group/SupaNova Management Inc.7) Super Star - Produced by Jazze Pha for Futuristic Entertainment8) Only One - Produced by Bryan-Michael Cox for Blackbaby, Inc9) Love Sick - Produced by K Fam for Stay Tuned Productions/Woodland Ent. & Adonis for Phoenix Ave Productions/Woodland Ent.10) Damages - Produced by Neff-U11) Like A Drum - Produced by Jazze Pha for Futuristic Entertainment

There was an interview that Kanye West did in Scratch magazine where he was talking about ‘I’ll sample drums off a Pete Rock instrumental if they’re open’. That was kinda funny to me.

I believe it! I hear my snares out there, and I’m like ‘Wow, that’s fuckin’ crazy, man!’ I feel like that’s lazy shit. You obviously don’t love it as much as I do, because for you to not go out there and find it on your own…you’ll find so much if you just take the time out to go dig, man. We do all the hard work so y’all can just snatch our records up and listen for open snares and kicks? That’s some wack shit. I respect cats that come with their own sound. Like Dilla was the master at that – having kicks and snares. I just recently learned that he always two-tracks his beats – he never gave-up any separate sounds, which is a great idea I think. He didn’t want to put his kicks and snares out there so people could steal ‘em.

You mentioned Dilla. His passing must have been….

Devastating.

So you knew him personally?

Yeah, man! I knew him for a good three or four years before I knew he was sick! I was blown back by that, man. I never knew he was sick – he always kinda hid it from me. His music will always be alive and well, and I will make sure to that. He was one of the greatest, man. He was the greatest to ever do it, for the new cats. And for his mother to tell me that I was his favorite producer – I was like ‘Wow, that’s dope, man’. He really took it there. He kinda broadened me and opened my eyes again, and got me standing up straight on my toes, ‘cos that dude was really serious with it.

Bow Wow "Pole In My Basement": Bow Weezy - we don't believe you, from the Auto-Tune to the "we gonna make it storm" to the "I'm gone on Patron". Like, I just don't see Bow Wow knowing fuck all about skrippas, nor do I believe he has a pole in his basement (no matter how much Elucid tells me these niggas be trickin'). Just, no. No belief in this shit at all.

"For all my girls out there in the club getting their grind on"... yeah, you really give a shit.

WTF @ "I wanted to do hoodrat stuff with my friend". I mean, yes, I am ROFLMFAO right now, but I mean, if that was my son, this nigga would be FUCKED THE FUCK UP! Fuck "no video games for a whole week". Nigga, please!

Black Rob Vs. Virgo "Whoa (DJ Nappy Rough THUGSTEP Refix)" [mirror]: Y'all remember "Whoa" right? Probably one of the hypest cuts ever committed to wax. So it only makes sense that Nappy threw some equally intense, pulsating Grime right underneath it and bring it to that next level. Those booming horns in the intro kill me, everytime. Fits so well.

Oh, and major props goes out to Nick Evelation; he's set up hosting for some projects he's working on, and is allowing these refixes to be hosted with direct linkage! In the coming weeks, I'll be sorting out everything that's leaked, THUGSTEP-wise, and will be uploading it. More news on that when it goes down.

Spec Boogie "Psychotic Girl": Spec speaking the truth about those Fatal Attraction chicks who massacre relationships over a cut from The Black Keys. You gotta love the storytelling over that country-twang in the track.

You ever been a fan of a person, but not necessarily a fan of their music? I don't think I've listened to one Jordin Sparks record on purpose, but I love her voice and her as an individual. Check out this exclusive interview with Fuse On Demand, where she speaks on her American Idol experience and her first album:

Elucid "Starstruck": This week's Warning Shot from Elucid is, yes, another Sean Bell tribute. E raps "niggas wanna riot, but'ya scared of revolution" over some plodding Santogold fuzz. This is something I've been batting around myself - the idea that everyone is calling for riots, and calling for killing pigs and all of this other stuff, but when the axe drops, most of these niggas are gonna run the other way. It's mad easy to say you gonna do something, but in this country, the Sean Bell tragedy has been and will continue to be perpetrated as long as we let them do it.

Were the Black Panthers wrong? I mean, any quality revolution is organized. Where is the organization within our own cities? I went to a Neighborhood Crime Watch meeting a month ago. Niggas came in 10, 15, 30 minutes late, and it was only a handful of us in there, and even less spoke. And I hated berating the officer who conducted the proceedings, but he had no answers, only promises of "more police protection", while speaking on the declining funds going to the department. "Doing more with less" is a phrase thrown around, and is a phrase that can be used to justify 50 shots killing an unarmed groom-to-be. Must we take arms up for ourselves to be heard?

Organize and unify. Elucid, you have outdone yourself, and I will stop my venom so the people can fully focus on your track. Warning Shots stay coming - are you listening?

Niggas gonna overkill the Sean Bell verdict. I say that because, while I feel for their desire to speak on such a fucked up situation, the majority of these SeanBelltribute tracks talk loud and say nothing. Now The Game has "911 Is A Joke (Cop Killa)". All he needed to do is make a remix and throw "Fuck The Police" in the title, and he will have all of the bases covered. The thing is, what will niggas do when the deal really does go down? Everyone is a cowboy on their records, but when it's time to take it up against the establishment, will they duck into the secure homes or will they truly pick up arms and go at the establishment?

I apologize for rock the dub being down for a good chunk of yesterday evening... I was testing a DNS server setting, which ended up being dead. I was off the PC for like 7 hours (trying to finally get my landlord's shit out of my spot), and didn't get on until like midnight last night/this morning. DNS settings have been fixed, and while http://rockthedub.com doesn't seem to work (still!), www.rockthedub.com is back in effect.

Tuesday, April 29, 2008

In any case, The Roots, in celebration of their Rising Down(which is in stores RIGHT NOW), hit up a slew of spots yesterday, doing promo and the like (hit up this post on the OKP Blog for their manic Monday); one spot was to hit up DJ Green Lantern's Sirius Satellite show last night, and were kind enough to provide audio (and tracklisting!) for this performance:

Jake The Snake ft. Ras Kass "Kilograms (I Know)": Feelin' this one. Solid beat, allowing J the S and Ras Kass to murk this one. Simple and plain. Be on the look out for When In Rome, which is out now, and The Last Days, which is rumored to be dropping in '09. Beantown coming thoro.

I reviewed this disc a few weeks back, and I am still impressed with what Y-Love has done, infusing his revolution-tinged "global Hip-Hop" with his Hasidic teachings, creating an interesting mix of forward-thinking Hip-Hop with more socially-aware messages. The good folks at Fanatic have given some MP3s for you guys to devour, and hopefully hearing these will get some of you hunting for this CD, which dropped today:

Y-Love is also one of URB's Next 1000, as well as co-producer of the Hip-Hop Sulha. I think, if you Hip-Hoppers who call yourselves revolutionary, you would be remiss to dismiss Y-Love before checking out what he's all about.

For you producer/remixers out there, Shemspeed is running a Y-Love Remix Contest. The winner received a Shemspeed Fun Pack (which includes CDs, stickers, posters, Fliers and an official Shemspeed t-shirt); hit this link for the files for this competition; make sure you hit up djhandler@shemspeed.com when you have completed your remixes!

With the way Andre 3000 has been rhyming for the last year or two, I have re-established my love for his skills. After The Love Below, I admit, I figured he was done, but he got his mojo back, or maybe some good weed. Who knows? In any case, the Trapaholics decided to put together a dope mixtape full of Andre's work. Check it out:

The iNTERNETS CELEBRITIES have a new video coming entitled "Checkmate", about check-cashing spots and debt and the like. I've seen a rough cut and it's damn good. They've posted a few outtakes from the vid, so check them out and keep it locked to their site for the premier:

You gotta love it. And dude is back on his shit, too; from the more mainstream/club friendly joints to just that gutter shit he's been perfecting over the last few years, dude is back with a vengeance. I'm not sure if he has another "Touch It" on this album, but he will definitely have some heaters for the street and the clubs.

"Bring It On" was so sick when it first came out. Cable's also uploaded a refix he did of a Mistajam blend. Check it out, in his own words:

As a bonus - I have yet another refix for you all....If you listen to BBC 1Xtra then you may have heard Mistajam's rather excellent 'Night Time Soulja', where he's taken the existing Soulja Boy track, and put a Benga & Coki loop behind it.

I decided to expand on that, add a DJ friendly intro, chopped up some vocals and cut from the original track to the 'Night' instrumental....I've been sitting on this for a few months now, but thought I'd might as well share it with you....So, here's my take on Mistajam's already dope blend record:

Young Shaws "Magic" (prod. by DJ Denox): New cut passed to me from Denox. This is actually a different lane, on some really sparse shit, which is refreshing to hear, especially since this still maintains a nice club-friendly vibe to it. Not sure who Shaws is, but he holds his own.

EDIT: I apologize the above statement. In a fit of misunderstanding, King Kwasi is not the artist embroiled in this Green Lantern situation. Kwasi hit me up due to a comment I made in the above statement, and seeing his e-mail (which has a subject line of THEKAOSEFFECT) lead me to wrongfully assume that he was in fact the original poster. I apologize for that, and for any confusion that could possibly come from this. I was originally not going to post this retraction, and leave it off of my blog completely, but that's not being a grown man and admitting your mistakes. So, again, I apologize.

Kidz In The Hall ft. Bun B, Pusha T & The Cool Kids "Drivin' Down The Block (Remix)": After seeing that video (which is premiering on MTV's TRL today - vote it into rotation!) , you should take a time and get involved with their new remix, which reads like a who's who of Hip-Hop Blog favorites. This has been featured everywhere, with everyone giving their own thoughts - my question to you is, who do YOU think ripped it in this remix? Comment it up!

The In Crowd hits stores on May 13th, 2008. Props to Matt for the MP3.

Theo "Say It Right" (prod. by Kris Fame): I brought you the snippet last week, and the full MP3 hit my inbox today. I'm in love with that beat - got a nice swing-y feel to it, with that classic sample thrown in there. Props to Kris Fame for the heat, as well as Theo's slick rhymes overtop.

Bonus Beats: Cy Yung "CeleBROtee" (prod. by J. Slikk); this cut is short and to the point. Lovin' that jazzy piano loop. And any track where a nigga can throw "tender vittles" into his verse is solid gold to me!

Sunday, April 27, 2008

Everyone who has been on this ride with me since the beginning and continues to be a supporter of music that makes you feel something true and vulnerable and honest by being just that.

It's been a wonderful and awful journey all at the same time. Mostly leaning towards the wonderful part..lol.

Thank you for letting me share what I could with you and sharing yourselves back, as you have really been the reason that I kept on.

It's always nice to know that you could be the voice of someone who didn't have one, or know just how to say it.No comment or letter or statement of appreciation has ever gone unnoticed.I love to write, I love to be able to create imagery and a world out of just words.

I will always love what I consider to be true hip hop music... from the bottom of my soul.

I hope you will continue to distinguish those who are contributors to the evolution of hip hop and other black music as both an auditory stimulation and a culture, taking care that they are put in a position to do so.

Thank you listeners, whom I consider my friends and family....

Enjoy.... see y'all around..

It's been amazing.. thank you again.

peaces..

Word? One of the illest ladies ever to touch the mic, who was formerly known as What? What? is out of the game? I wonder why. HipHopDX posted this as well, so I guess keep it locked until more word is given. I'm sad though, homegirl was the truth on the mic.